What is Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Online? ....................................................................................... 379 What data can I back up and recover? ...................................................................................................... 380 How long will my backups be kept in the online storage? ....................................................................... 380 How to secure my data? ............................................................................................................................. 380 How to back up virtual machines to the online storage?......................................................................... 380 Backup and recovery FAQ .......................................................................................................................... 381 Initial Seeding FAQ ...................................................................................................................................... 382 Large Scale Recovery FAQ .......................................................................................................................... 387 Subscription lifecycle FAQ .......................................................................................................................... 389

Backup of an entire disk or volume, including the operating system, all applications, and data Bare metal recovery to any hardware File and folder backup and recovery Scalability from a single machine to an enterprise Support for both Windows and Linux environments Centralized management for distributed workstations and servers Dedicated servers for storage resource optimization.

To specify a weekly schedule
In the Schedule area, select the appropriate parameter as follows:
Every: <...> week(s) on: <...> Specify a certain number of weeks and the days of the week you want the task to be run. For example, with the Every 2 week(s) on Mon setting, the task will be performed on Monday of every other week.

In the During the day execute the task... area, select one of the following: Once at: <...> Every: <...> From: <...> Until: <...> Set up the time at which the task will be run once. Set up how many times the task will be run during the specified time interval. For example, setting the task frequency to Every 1 hour From 10:00:00 AM until 10:00:00 PM allows the task to be run 12 times from 10 AM to 10 PM during one day.

In the Effective... area, set the following settings:
From: <...> Set up a date when this schedule will be enabled (an effective date). If this check box is cleared, the task will be started on the nearest day and time you have specified above. Set up a date when this schedule will be disabled. If this check box is cleared, the task will be run for an indefinite number of weeks.

Examples
"One day in the week" schedule Run the task every Friday at 10PM, starting from a certain date (say 05/14/2009) and ending after six months. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: Fri. 2. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: 05/13/2009. The task will be started on the nearest Friday at 10 PM. To: 11/13/2009. The task will be performed for the last time on this date, but the task itself will still be available in the Tasks view after this date. (If this date were not a Friday, the task would be last performed on the last Friday preceding this date.) This schedule is widely used when creating a custom backup scheme. The "One day in the week"-like schedule is added to the full backups, while the incremental backups are scheduled to be performed on workdays. For more details, see the Full and incremental backups plus cleanup example in the Custom backup scheme (p. 218) section. "Workdays" schedule Run the task every week on workdays: from Monday through Friday. During a workday, the task starts only once at 9 PM. The schedule's parameters are thus set up as follows. 1. Every: 1 week(s) on: <Workdays> - selecting the <Workdays> check box automatically selects the corresponding check boxes (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, and Fri), and leaves the remaining ones unchanged. 2. Once at: 09:00:00 PM. 3. Effective: From: empty. If you have created the task, say on Monday at 11:30 AM, the task will be started on the same day at 9 PM. If the task was created, say on Friday after 9 PM, then it will be started for the first time on the nearest workday (Monday in our example) at 9 PM. End date: empty. The task will be restarted for an indefinite number of weeks. This schedule is widely used when creating a custom backup scheme. The "Workdays"-like schedule is added to the incremental backups, while the full backup is scheduled to be performed one day in the week. For more details, see the Full and incremental backups plus cleanup example in the Custom backup scheme (p. 218) section. Several weekly schedules for one task In the case when the task needs to be run on different days of the weeks with different time intervals, consider adding a dedicated schedule to every desired day of the week, or to several days. For example, you need the task to be run with the following schedule:

To specify a monthly schedule
In the Schedule area, select the appropriate parameter as follows:
Months: <...> Days: <...> On: <...> <...> Select a certain month(s) you want to run the task in. Select specific days of the month to run the task on. You can also select the last day of the month, irrespective of its actual date. Select specific days of the weeks to run the task on.

In the During the day execute the task... area, select one of the following: Once at: <...> Set up the time at which the task will be run once.

Set up how many times the task will be run during the specified time interval. For example, setting the task frequency to Every 1 hour From 10:00:00 AM until 10:00:00 PM allows the task to be run 12 times from 10 AM to 10 PM during one day.

In the Effective... area, set the following settings:
From: <...> Set up a date when this schedule will be enabled (an effective date). If this check box is cleared, the task will be started on the nearest day and time you have specified above. Set up a date when this schedule will be disabled. If this check box is cleared, the task will be run for an indefinite number of months.

To: <...>

Advanced scheduling settings (p. 177) are available only for machines registered on Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server. To specify these settings, click Change in the Advanced settings area. All the settings you made are displayed in the Result field at the bottom of the window.

Examples
"Last day of every month" schedule Run the task once at 10 PM on the last day of every month. The schedule's parameters are set up as follows. 1. 2. 3. 4. Months: <All months>. Days: Last. The task will run on the last day of every month despite its actual date. Once at: 10:00:00 PM. Effective: From: empty. To: empty.

To: 12/01/2010. Actually the task will end on the last workday of November. By setting up this date we just define that the task must be discontinued in 2010, after autumn ends in the northern hemisphere. Several monthly schedules for one task In the case when the task needs to be run on different days or weeks with different time intervals depending on the month, consider adding a dedicated schedule to every desired month or several months. Suppose that the task goes into effect on 11/01/2009.

  

During northern winter, the task runs once at 10PM on every workday. During northern spring and autumn, the task runs every 12 hours on all workdays. During northern summer, the task runs every first and fifteenth of every month at 10 PM.

For example, you may want to set up a backup plan that will automatically perform an emergency full backup of your data as soon as Windows discovers that your hard disk drive is about to fail.

Parameters
Log name Specifies the name of the log. Select the name of a standard log (Application, Security, or System) from the list, or type a log name—for example: Microsoft Office Sessions Event source Specifies the event source, which typically indicates the program or the system component that caused the event—for example: disk Event type Specifies the event type: Error, Warning, Information, Audit success, or Audit failure. Event ID Specifies the event number, which typically identifies the particular kind of events among events from the same source. For example, an Error event with Event source disk and Event ID 7 occurs when Windows discovers a bad block on a disk, whereas an Error event with Event source disk and Event ID 15 occurs when a disk is not ready for access yet.

Examples
"Bad block" emergency backup One or more bad blocks that have suddenly appeared on a hard disk usually indicate that the hard disk drive will soon fail. Suppose that you want to create a backup plan that will back up hard disk data as soon as such a situation occurs. When Windows detects a bad block on a hard disk, it records an event with the event source disk and the event number 7 into the System log; the type of this event is Error. When creating the plan, type or select the following in the Schedule area:

   

Log name: System Event source: disk Event type: Error Event ID: 7

Important: To ensure that such a task will complete despite the presence of bad blocks, you must make the task ignore bad blocks. To do this, in Backup options, go to Error handling, and then select the Ignore bad sectors check box.

Tip: To set up a similar backup plan for machines running Microsoft Windows XP, replace the text in Event source with Windows Update Agent and leave the remaining fields the same.

How to view events in Event viewer
To open a log in Event Viewer
1. On the Desktop or in the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage. 2. In the Computer Management console, expand System Tools, and then expand Event Viewer. 3. In Event Viewer, click the name of a log that you want to view—for example, Application.
Note: To be able to open the security log (Security), you must be a member of the Administrators group.

To view properties of an event, including the event source and event number
1. In Event Viewer, click the name of a log that you want to view—for example, Application.
Note: To be able to open the security log (Security), you must be a member of the Administrators group.

2. In the list of events in the right pane, double-click the name of an event whose properties you want to view. 3. In the Event Properties dialog box, view the event's properties such as the event source, shown in the Source field; and the event number, shown in the Event ID field. When you are finished, click OK to close the Event Properties dialog box.

5.5

Advanced scheduling settings

The following advanced settings are available when setting up a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule in a backup policy.

Use Wake-On-LAN
When this setting is enabled, Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server will use the WakeOn-LAN (WOL) functionality to wake up turned-off registered machines when a backup, cleanup or validation is scheduled to start. If the backup task on each machine starts with a delay (see the next setting), the management server will wake up the machines according to those delays. Before using this setting, make sure that you have enabled Wake-on-LAN on the registered machines. The machine's basic input/output system (BIOS) configuration, network adapter configuration, and the operating system configuration must allow waking up the machine from the powered-off state—also known as the S5 or G2 power state.

Distribute start time within the time window
When this setting is enabled, the backup task on each registered machine will start with a specific delay from the start time set in the policy. This distributes the tasks' actual start times within a time interval. You may want to use this setting when creating a backup policy for backing up multiple machines to a network location, to avoid excessive network load. Delay values range from zero to the specified maximum delay value, and are determined according to the chosen distribution method. The delay value for each machine is determined when the policy is deployed to the machine, and remains the same until you edit the policy and change the maximum delay value. The conditions, if any, will be checked at the task's actual start time on each machine. The following examples illustrate this setting. Example 1 Suppose that you are deploying a backup policy with the following schedule to three machines: Run the task: Daily Once at: 09:00:00 AM Distribute start time within the time window Maximum delay: 1 Hour(s) Distribution method: Random Then the task's start time on each machine may be any time between 09:00:00 AM and 09:59:59 AM—for instance: First machine: Every day at 09:30:03 AM Second machine: Every day at 09:00:00 AM Third machine: Every day at 09:59:59 AM Example 2 Suppose that you are deploying a backup policy with the following schedule to three machines: Run the task: Daily Every: 2 Hour(s) From: 09:00:00 AM Until: 11:00:00 AM Distribute start time within the time window Maximum delay: 1 Hour(s) Distribution method: Random Then the time of the task's first run on each machine may be any time between 09:00:00 AM and 09:59:59 AM; the interval between the first and the second run is exactly two hours—for instance: First machine: Every day at 09:30:03 AM and 11:30:03 AM Second machine: Every day at 09:00:00 AM and 11:00:00 AM Third machine: Every day at 09:59:59 AM and 11:59:59 AM

If the archive is located on removable media, e.g. DVDs, first insert the last DVD and then insert the discs in order starting from the first one when the program prompts.



If the archive is stored on a network share, expand the Network folders group, then select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them.

Note for Linux users: To specify a Common Internet File System (CIFS) network share which is mounted on a mount point such as /mnt/share, select this mount point instead of the network share itself.



If the archive is stored on an FTP or SFTP server, type the server name or address in the Path field as follows: ftp://ftp_server:port _number or sftp://sftp_server:port number If the port number is not specified, port 21 is used for FTP and port 22 is used for SFTP. After entering access credentials, the folders on the server become available. Click the appropriate folder on the server. You can access the server as an anonymous user if the server enables such access. To do so, click Use anonymous access instead of entering credentials.

According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.



If the archive is stored on a locally attached tape device, expand the Tape drives group, then click the required device. When operating on a machine booted with bootable media:

 

To access a managed vault, type the following string in the Path field: bsp://node_address/vault_name/

To access an unmanaged centralized vault, type the full path to the vault's folder. 2. In the table to the right of the tree, select the archive. The table displays the names of the archives contained in each vault/folder you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations. Use the Refresh button to refresh the list of archives. 3. Click OK.

6.3.3
  

Data type

Choose what type of data to recover from the selected disk backup: Disks - to recover disks Volumes - to recover volumes Files - to recover specific files and folders

6.3.4

Content selection

The representation of this window depends on the type of data stored in the archive.

To select a backup and disks/volumes to recover:
1. Select one of the successive backups by its creation date and time. Thus, you can revert the disk data to a certain moment in time. Specify the items to recover. By default, all items of the selected backup will be selected. If you do not want to recover certain items, just uncheck them. To obtain information on a disk/volume, right-click it and then click Information. 2. Click OK.

Selecting an MBR
You will usually select the disk's MBR if:

   

The operating system cannot boot The disk is new and does not have an MBR Recovering custom or non-Windows boot loaders (such as LILO and GRUB) The disk geometry is different to that stored in the backup.

There are probably other times when you may need to recover the MBR, but the above are the most common. When recovering the MBR of one disk to another Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 recovers Track 0, which does not affect the target disk’s partition table and partition layout. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 automatically updates Windows loaders after recovery, so there is no need to recover the MBR and Track 0 for Windows systems, unless the MBR is damaged.

6.3.4.2

Files selection

To select a backup and files to recover:
1. Select one of the successive backups by its creation date/time. Thus, you can revert the files/folders to a specific moment in time. 2. Specify the files and folders to recover by selecting the corresponding check boxes in the archives tree. Selecting a folder automatically selects all its nested folders and files. Use the table to the right of the archives tree to select the nested items. Selecting the check box for the Name column's header automatically selects all items in the table. Clearing this check box automatically deselects all the items. 3. Click OK.

6.3.5

Access credentials for location

Specify the credentials required for access to the location where the backup archive is stored.

The program will access the location using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the task account does not have access permissions to the location. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node vault. Specify:

 

User name. When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain)

Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK.
According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.

6.3.6
6.3.6.1

Destination selection
Disks

Specify the destination the selected data will be recovered to.

Available disk destinations depend on the agents operating on the machine.

Disk #:
Disk # (MODEL) (p. 232) Select the destination disk for each of the source disks. NT signature (p. 230) Select the way the recovered disk's signature will be handled. The disk signature is used by Windows and the Linux kernel version 2.6 and later.

Disk destination
To specify a destination disk:
1. Select a disk where you want the selected disk to recover to. The destination disk's space should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data. 2. Click OK.
All the data stored on the target disk will be replaced by the backed up data, so be careful and watch out for non-backed-up data that you might need.

NT signature
When the MBR is selected along with the disk backup, you need to retain operating system bootability on the target disk volume. The operating system must have the system volume information (e.g. volume letter) matched with the disk NT signature, which is kept in the MBR disk record. But two disks with the same NT signature cannot work properly under one operating system.
If there are two disks having the same NT signature and comprising of a system volume on a machine, at the startup the operating system runs from the first disk, discovers the same signature on the second one, automatically generates a new unique NT signature and assigns it to the second disk. As a result, all the volumes on the second disk will lose their letters, all paths will be invalid on the disk, and programs won't find their files. The operating system on that disk will be unbootable.

To retain system bootability on the target disk volume, choose one of the following:  Select automatically
A new NT signature will be created only if the existing one differs from the one in the backup. Otherwise, the existing NT signature will be kept.

 

Create new The program will generate a new NT signature for the target hard disk drive. Recover from backup The program will replace the NT signature of the target hard disk with one from the disk backup. Recovering the disk signature may be desirable due to the following reasons:



Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 creates scheduled tasks using the signature of the source hard disk. If you recover the same disk signature, you don't need to re-create or edit the tasks created previously Some installed applications use disk signature for licensing and other purposes This enables to keep all the Windows Restore Points on the recovered disk To recover VSS snapshots used by Windows Vista's "Previous Versions" feature

Available volume destinations depend on the agents operating on the machine.

Physical machine Available when the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux is installed. The selected volumes will be recovered to the physical disks of the machine the console is connected to. On selecting this, you proceed to the regular volume mapping procedure described below. New virtual machine (p. 233) If Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows is installed. The selected volumes will be recovered to a new virtual machine of any of the following types: VMware Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC, Parallels Workstation or Citrix XenServer Open Virtual Appliance (OVA). The virtual machine files will be saved to the destination you specify. If Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Hyper-V or Agent for ESX/ESXi is installed. These agents enable creating a new virtual machine on the virtualization server you specify. The new virtual machine will be configured automatically, the source machine configuration being copied where possible. The configuration is displayed in the Virtual Machine Settings (p. 233) section. Check the settings and make changes if necessary. Then you proceed to the regular volume mapping procedure described below. Existing virtual machine Available when the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Hyper-V or Agent for ESX/ESXi is installed. On selecting this, you specify the virtualization server and the target virtual machine. Then you proceed to the regular volume mapping procedure described below.
Please be aware that the target machine will be powered off automatically before recovery. If you prefer to power it off manually, modify the VM power management option.

Recover [Disk #] MBR to: [If the Master Boot Record is selected for recovery]
Disk # (p. 232) Choose the disk to recover the Master Boot Record to. NT signature: (p. 230) Select the way the disk's signature contained in the MBR will be handled. The disk signature is used by Windows and the Linux kernel version 2.6 and later.

Recover [Volume] [Letter] to:
Disk # /Volume (p. 232) Sequentially map each of the source volumes to a volume or an unallocated space on the destination disk. Size (p. 232): [Optional] Change the recovered volume size, location and other properties.

Volume destination
To specify a destination volume:
1. Select a volume or unallocated space where you want the selected volume to be recovered to. The destination volume/unallocated space should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data. 2. Click OK.
All the data stored on the target volume will be replaced by the backed up data, so be careful and watch out for non-backed-up data that you might need.

When using bootable media
Disk letters seen under Windows-style bootable media might differ from the way Windows identifies drives. For example, the D: drive in the rescue utility might correspond to the E: drive in Windows.
Be careful! To be on the safe side, it is advisable to assign unique names to the volumes.

The Linux-style bootable media shows local disks and volumes as unmounted (sda1, sda2...).

Volume properties
Resizing and relocating
When recovering a volume to a basic MBR disk, you can resize and relocate the volume by dragging it or its borders with a mouse or by entering corresponding values in the appropriate fields. Using this feature, you can redistribute the disk space between the volumes being recovered. In this case, you will have to recover the volume to be reduced first.
Tip: A volume cannot be resized when being recovered from a backup split into multiple removable media. To be able to resize the volume, copy all parts of the backup to a single location on a hard disk.

Properties
Type
A basic MBR disk can contain up to four primary volumes or up to three primary volumes and multiple logical drives. By default, the program selects the original volume's type. You can change this setting, if required.

set as active. If you recover a system volume to another hard disk with its own volumes and operating system, you will most likely need only the data. In this case, you can recover the volume as logical to access the data only.

File system
Change the volume file system, if required. By default, the program selects the original volume's file system. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can make the following file system conversions: FAT 16 -> FAT 32 and Ext2 -> Ext3. For volumes with other native file systems, this option is not available. Assume you are going to recover a volume from an old, low-capacity FAT16 disk to a newer disk. FAT16 would not be effective and might even be impossible to set on the high-capacity hard disk. That's because FAT16 supports volumes up to 4GB, so you will not be able to recover a 4GB FAT16 volume to a volume that exceeds that limit, without changing the file system. It would make sense here to change the file system from FAT16 to FAT32. Older operating systems (MS-DOS, Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.x, 4.x) do not support FAT32 and will not be operable after you recover a volume and change its file system. These can be normally recovered on a FAT16 volume only.

With the default AUTO selection, the first unused letter will be assigned to the volume. If you select NO, no letter will be assigned to the recovered volume, hiding it from the OS.You should not assign letters to volumes that are inaccessible to Windows, such as to those other than FAT and NTFS.

6.3.6.3

Virtual machine type / virtualization server selection

The new virtual machine can be created either on a virtualization server (this requires Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Hyper-V or Agent for ESX/ESXi to be installed) or in any accessible local or networked folder.

To select the virtualization server the new virtual machine will be created on
1. Choose the Place on the virtualization server that I select option. 2. In the left part of the window, select the virtualization server. Use the right part of the window to review details on the selected server. 3. Click OK to return to the Data recovery page.

To select the type of virtual machine
1. Choose the Save as files of the VM type that I select to the folder that I specify option. 2. In the left part of the window, select the virtual machine type. Use the right part of the window to review details on the selected virtual machine type. 3. Click OK to return to the Data recovery page.

Storage
Initial setting: the default storage of the virtualization server if the new machine is created on the virtualization server. Otherwise the current user's documents folder. This is the place where the new virtual machine will be created. Whether you can change the storage on the virtualization server or not, depends on the virtualization product brand and settings. VMware ESX may have multiple storages. A Microsoft Hyper-V server enables creating a new virtual machine in any local folder.

Memory
Initial setting: if not contained in the backup, the default setting of the virtualization server. This is the amount of memory allocated to the new virtual machine. The memory adjustment range depends on the host hardware, the host operating system and the virtualization product settings. For example, virtual machines may be allowed to use no more than 30% of memory.

Disks
Initial setting: the number and size of the source machine's disks. The number of disks is generally equal to that of the source machine, but might be different if the program has to add more disks to accommodate the source machine volumes because of limitations set by the virtualization product. You can add virtual disks to the machine configuration or, in some cases, delete the proposed disks.
Implementation of Xen machines is based on Microsoft Virtual PC and inherits its limitations: up to 3 IDE disks and 1 processor. SCSI disks are not supported.

Processors
Initial setting: if not contained in the backup or the backed up setting is not supported by the virtualization server, the default server's setting. This is the number of processors of the new virtual machine. In most cases it is set to one. The result of assignment of more than one processor to the machine is not guaranteed. The number of virtual processors may be limited by the host CPU configuration, the virtualization product and the guest operating system. Multiple virtual processors are generally available on multi-processor hosts. A multicore host CPU or hyperthreading may enable multiple virtual processors on a single-processor host.

6.3.6.5

File destination

To specify a destination:
1. Select a location to recover the backed up files to:



Original location - files and folders will be recovered to the same path(s) as they are in the backup. For example, if you have backed up all files and folders in C:\Documents\Finance\Reports\, the files will be recovered to the same path. If the folder does not exist, it will be created automatically.

If the recovery requires the machine to be rebooted (usually, when the volumes to recover include the boot partition), follow these guidelines:



If all parts of the MD device are volumes (a typical case, such as in the first example), make sure that the type of each volume—called partition type or system ID—is Linux raid automount; the hexadecimal code of this partition type is 0xFD. This will guarantee that the device will be automatically assembled following the reboot. To view or change the partition type, use a disk partitioning utility such as fdisk. Otherwise (such as in the second example), perform the recovery from bootable media. No reboot will be required in that case. In bootable media, you may need to create the MD device manually or automatically, as described in Recovering MD devices and logical volumes (p. 274).



6.3.13 Recovering a vast number of files from a file backup
Applies to: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 When recovering a very large number of files at a time (hundreds of thousands or millions) from a file backup, you might encounter the following problem:

 

The recovery process fails, and the message "Error reading the file" appears. Not all of the files are recovered.

The most likely cause of the problem is an insufficient amount of memory allocated to the recovery process by the operating system's cache manager. You can either work around this problem or modify the registry to increase the amount of allocated memory, as described below. To resolve the problem, do either of the following:

 

Recover the files as two or more groups. For example, if the problem occurs when recovering 1 million files, try recovering the first 500,000 of them and then the remaining 500,000. Modify the registry as follows:
Note: This procedure requires restarting the machine. Use standard precautions when modifying the registry.

1. In Registry Editor, open the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

6.3.14 Recovering the storage node
In addition to backing up data to centralized vaults managed by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node, you may want to perform a disk backup of the machine where the storage node itself is installed. This section describes how to recover the storage node registered on the management server in case the storage node and the management server are installed on different machines (if they are installed on the same machine, simply recover that machine). Consider the following scenario:

  

You have a machine with the management server and a machine with the storage node. The storage node is registered on the management server. You backed up the machine with the storage node earlier, and have just recovered it—either on the same machine or on a different machine.

Before using the recovered storage node, follow these steps:

 

If you have recovered the storage node on the same machine and no centralized vaults managed by the storage node have been added or removed between the backup and recovery, do nothing. Otherwise, do the following: 1. Connect to the management server and remove the storage node from it.
Note: All vaults managed by the storage node will also be removed from the management server. No archives will be lost.

2. Add the storage node to the management server again, by specifiying the machine on which the recovered storage node is installed. 3. Re-create the necessary managed vaults.

6.4

Validating vaults, archives and backups

Validation is an operation that checks the possibility of data recovery from a backup. Validation of a file backup imitates recovery of all files from the backup to a dummy destination. Validation of a disk or volume backup calculates a checksum for every data block saved in the backup. Both procedures are resource-intensive. Validation of an archive will validate all the archive's backups. A vault (or a location) validation will validate all archives stored in this vault (location). While successful validation means high probability of successful recovery, it does not check all factors that influence the recovery process. If you back up the operating system, only a test recovery in bootable environment to a spare hard drive can guarantee success of the recovery. At least ensure that the backup can be successfully validated using the bootable media.

You can access the Validation page from the Vaults (p. 130) view. Right-click the object to validate (archive, backup or vault) and select Validate from the context menu. The Validation page will be opened with the pre-selected object as a source. All you need to do is to select when to validate and (optionally) provide a name for the task.

To create a validation task, perform the following steps.

General
Task name [Optional] Enter a unique name for the validation task. A conscious name lets you quickly identify the task among the others. Credentials (p. 245) [Optional] The validation task will run on behalf of the user who is creating the task. You can change the task credentials if necessary. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

What to validate
Validate Choose an object to validate: Archive (p. 246) - in that case, you need to specify the archive. Backup (p. 247) - specify the archive first, and then select the desired backup in this archive. Vault (p. 247) - select a vault (or other location), which archives to validate. Access Credentials (p. 247) [Optional] Provide credentials for accessing the source if the task account does not have enough privileges to access it. To access this option, select the check box for Advanced view.

When to validate
Validate (p. 248) Specify when and how often to perform validation. After you configure all the required settings, click OK to create the validation task.

User name. When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain)

Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK. To learn more about using credentials in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, see the Owners and credentials (p. 32) section. To learn more about operations available depending on the user privileges, see the User privileges on a managed machine (p. 31) section.

6.4.2

Archive selection

Selecting the archive
1. Enter the full path to the location in the Path field, or select the desired folder in the folders tree.



If the archive is stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the online storage. Then expand the Online backup storage group and select the account.

Exporting and mounting are not supported for backups stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage.

  

If the archive is stored in a centralized vault, expand the Centralized group and click the vault. If the archive is stored in a personal vault, expand the Personal group and click the vault. If the archive is stored in a local folder on the machine, expand the Local folders group and click the required folder.

If the archive is located on removable media, e.g. DVDs, first insert the last DVD and then insert the discs in order starting from the first one when the program prompts.



If the archive is stored on a network share, expand the Network folders group, then select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them.

Note for Linux users: To specify a Common Internet File System (CIFS) network share which is mounted on a mount point such as /mnt/share, select this mount point instead of the network share itself.



If the archive is stored on an FTP or SFTP server, type the server name or address in the Path field as follows: ftp://ftp_server:port _number or sftp://sftp_server:port number If the port number is not specified, port 21 is used for FTP and port 22 is used for SFTP. After entering access credentials, the folders on the server become available. Click the appropriate folder on the server. You can access the server as an anonymous user if the server enables such access. To do so, click Use anonymous access instead of entering credentials.

According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.

To access a managed vault, type the following string in the Path field: bsp://node_address/vault_name/

To access an unmanaged centralized vault, type the full path to the vault's folder. 2. In the table to the right of the tree, select the archive. The table displays the names of the archives contained in each vault/folder you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations. Use the Refresh button to refresh the list of archives. 3. Click OK.

6.4.3

Backup selection

To specify a backup to validate
1. In the upper pane, select a backup by its creation date/time. The bottom part of the window displays the selected backup content, assisting you to find the right backup. 2. Click OK.

6.4.4

Location selection

To select a location
Enter the full path to the location in the Path field or select the desired location in the folders tree.

   

To select a centralized vault, expand the Centralized group and click the appropriate vault. To select a personal vault, expand the Personal group and click the appropriate vault. To select a local folder (CD/DVD drive, or locally attached tape device), expand the Local folders group and click the required folder. To select a network share, expand the Network folders group, select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them. To select FTP or SFTP server, expand the corresponding group and click the appropriate folder on the server.



According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.

Using the archives table
To assist you with choosing the right location, the table displays the names of the archives contained in each location you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations. Use the Refresh button to refresh the list of archives.

6.4.5

Access credentials for source

Specify the credentials required for access to the location where the backup archive is stored.

Use the task credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the task account specified in the General section. Use the following credentials The program will access the location using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the task account does not have access permissions to the location. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node vault. Specify:



 

User name. When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain)

Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK.
According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.

6.4.6

When to validate

As validation is a resource-intensive operation, it makes sense to schedule validation to the managed machine's off-peak period. On the other hand, if you prefer to be immediately informed whether the data is not corrupted and can be successfully recovered, consider starting validation right after the task creation.

Choose one of the following:  Now - to start the validation task right after its creation, that is, after clicking OK on the
Validation page.



Later - to start the one-time validation task, at the date and time you specify. Specify the appropriate parameters as follows:

  

Date and time - the date and time when to start the task. The task will be started manually (do not schedule the task) - select this check box, if you wish to start the task manually later.

On schedule - to schedule the task. To learn more about how to configure the scheduling parameters, please see the Scheduling (p. 168) section.

6.5

Mounting an image

Mounting volumes from a disk backup (image) lets you access the volumes as though they were physical disks. Multiple volumes contained in the same backup can be mounted within a single mount operation. The mount operation is available when the console is connected to a managed machine running either Windows or Linux. Mounting volumes in the read/write mode enables you to modify the backup content, that is, save, move, create, delete files or folders, and run executables consisting of one file.
Limitation: Mounting of volume backups stored on Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node is not possible.

"Band aid" database recovery solution: mount up an image that contains an SQL database from a recently failed machine. This will give access to the database until the failed machine is recovered. Offline virus clean: if a machine is attacked, the administrator shuts it down, boots with bootable media and creates an image. Then, the administrator mounts this image in read/write mode, scans and cleans it with an antivirus program, and finally recovers the machine. Error check: if recovery failed due to a disk error, mount the image in the read/write mode. Then, check the mounted disk for errors with the chkdsk /r command.

Mount settings
Volumes (p. 251) Select volumes to mount and configure the mount settings for every volume: assign a letter or enter the mount point, choose the read/write or read only access mode. When you complete all the required steps, click OK to mount the volumes.

6.5.1

Archive selection

Selecting the archive
1. Enter the full path to the location in the Path field, or select the desired folder in the folders tree.



If the archive is stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the online storage. Then expand the Online backup storage group and select the account.

Exporting and mounting are not supported for backups stored in Acronis Online Backup Storage.

  

If the archive is stored in a centralized vault, expand the Centralized group and click the vault. If the archive is stored in a personal vault, expand the Personal group and click the vault. If the archive is stored in a local folder on the machine, expand the Local folders group and click the required folder.

If the archive is located on removable media, e.g. DVDs, first insert the last DVD and then insert the discs in order starting from the first one when the program prompts.



If the archive is stored on a network share, expand the Network folders group, then select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them.

If the archive is stored on an FTP or SFTP server, type the server name or address in the Path field as follows: ftp://ftp_server:port _number or sftp://sftp_server:port number If the port number is not specified, port 21 is used for FTP and port 22 is used for SFTP. After entering access credentials, the folders on the server become available. Click the appropriate folder on the server. You can access the server as an anonymous user if the server enables such access. To do so, click Use anonymous access instead of entering credentials.

According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.



If the archive is stored on a locally attached tape device, expand the Tape drives group, then click the required device. When operating on a machine booted with bootable media:

 

To access a managed vault, type the following string in the Path field: bsp://node_address/vault_name/

To access an unmanaged centralized vault, type the full path to the vault's folder. 2. In the table to the right of the tree, select the archive. The table displays the names of the archives contained in each vault/folder you select. While you are reviewing the location content, archives can be added, deleted or modified by another user or by the program itself according to scheduled operations. Use the Refresh button to refresh the list of archives. 3. Click OK.

6.5.2

Backup selection

To select a backup:
1. Select one of the backups by its creation date/time. 2. To assist you with choosing the right backup, the bottom table displays the volumes contained in the selected backup. To obtain information on a volume, right-click it and then click Information. 3. Click OK.

6.5.3
 

Access credentials
Use the current user credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the current user. Use the following credentials The program will access the location using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the current user account does not have access permissions to the location. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node vault. Specify:

Exclude all system files and folders This option is effective only for file systems that are supported by Windows. Select this check box to skip files and folders with the System attribute. If a folder is System, all of its contents — including files that are not System — will be excluded.

You can view file or folder attributes in the file/folder properties or by using the attrib command. For more information, refer to the Help and Support Center in Windows.



Exclude files matching the following criteria Select this check box to skip files and folders whose names match any of the criteria — called file masks — in the list; use the Add, Edit, Remove and Remove All buttons to create the list of file masks. You can use one or more wildcard characters * and ? in a file mask: The asterisk (*) substitutes for zero or more characters in a file name; for example, the file mask Doc*.txt yields files such as Doc.txt and Document.txt The question mark (?) substitutes for exactly one character in a file name; for example, the file mask Doc?.txt yields files such as Doc1.txt and Docs.txt — but not the files Doc.txt or Doc11.txt

To exclude a folder specified by a path containing the drive letter, add a backslash (\) to the folder name in the criterion; for example: C:\Finance\ Exclusion examples
Criterion Example Description Windows and Linux By name F.log F By mask (*) *.log F* By mask (?) F???.log Excludes all files named "F.log" Excludes all folders named "F" Excludes all files with the .log extension Excludes all files and folders with names starting with "F" (such as folders F, F1 and files F.log, F1.log) Excludes all .log files with names consisting of four symbols and starting with "F" Windows By file path C:\Finance\F.log Excludes the file named "F.log" located in the folder C:\Finance Excludes the folder C:\Finance\F (be sure to specify the full path starting from the disk letter) Linux By file path By folder path /home/user/Finance/F.log /home/user/Finance/ Excludes the file named "F.log" located in the folder /home/user/Finance Excludes the folder /home/user/Finance

To back up data to Acronis Online Backup Storage, click Log in and specify the credentials to log in to the online storage. Then, expand the Online backup storage group and select the account. Prior to backing up to the online storage, you need to buy a subscription (p. 391) to the online backup service and activate (p. 392) the subscription on the machine(s) you want to back up. Online backup is not available in Linux.

To store archives in a centralized vault, expand the Centralized group and click the vault. To store archives on a network share, expand the Network folders group, then select the required networked machine and then click the shared folder. If the network share requires access credentials, the program will ask for them. To store archives on an FTP or SFTP server, expand the corresponding group and reach the appropriate server, then select the folder that will be used for storing archives.



According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.



Store each machine's archive in the specified folder on the machine Enter the full path to the folder in the Path field. This path will be created on each machine the policy will be applied to. Store each machine's archive in the machine's Acronis Secure Zone Acronis Secure Zone has to be created on each machine the policy will be applied to. For information on how to create Acronis Secure Zone, see the Creating Acronis Secure Zone (p. 258) section.



2. Naming the archives
Data from each machine will be backed up to a separate archive. Specify names for the archives. The program generates a common name for the new archives and displays it in the Name field. The name looks like [PolicyName]_[MachineName]_Archive1. If you are not satisfied with the automatically generated name, construct another name. If you selected Store all machines' archives in a single location, you have to use variables in order to provide the unique archive names within the location. 1. Click Add variables, then select

FINDEPT2_SYSTEM_BACKUP_Archive1 FINDEPT3_SYSTEM_BACKUP_Archive1 2. Click OK. The name looks like ArchiveN, where N is a sequence number. If the program finds that the archive Archive1 is already stored in the location, it will automatically suggest the name Archive2.

7.3.6

Access credentials for location

Specify credentials required for access to the location where the backup archive will be stored. The user name of these credentials will be considered as the archive owner.

To specify credentials
1. Select one of the following:



Use the policy credentials The program will access the location using the credentials of the backup policy specified in the General section. Use the following credentials The program will access the location using the credentials you specify. Use this option if the policy credentials do not have access permissions to the location. You might need to provide special credentials for a network share or a storage node. Specify:



 

User name. When entering the name of an Active Directory user account, be sure to also specify the domain name (DOMAIN\Username or Username@domain)

Password. The password for the account. 2. Click OK.
Warning: According to the original FTP specification, credentials required for access to FTP servers are transferred through a network as plaintext. This means that the user name and password can be intercepted by an eavesdropper using a packet sniffer.

backup levels, you automatically obtain the rollback period – the guaranteed number of sessions that you can go back at any time. The automatic cleanup mechanism maintains the required rollback period by deleting the expired backups and keeping the most recent backups of each level.



Custom – to create a custom scheme, where you are free to set up a backup strategy in the way your enterprise needs it most: specify multiple schedules for different backup types, add conditions and specify the retention rules. Initial seeding - to save locally a full backup whose final destination is Acronis Online Backup Storage.



7.3.7.1

Back up now scheme

With the Back up now scheme, the backup will be performed immediately, right after you click the OK button at the bottom of the page. In the Backup type field, select whether you want to create a full, incremental or differential backup (p. 33).

7.3.7.2

Back up later scheme

With the Back up later scheme, the backup will be performed only once, at the date and time you specify. Specify the appropriate settings as follows
Backup type Select the type of backup: full, incremental, or differential. If there is no full backup in the archive, a full backup will be created regardless of your selection. Specify when to start the backup. Select this check box, if you do not need to put the backup task on a schedule and wish to start it manually afterwards.

Date and time The task will be started manually

7.3.7.3

Simple scheme

With the simple backup scheme you just schedule when and how often to back up data and set the retention rule. At the first time a full backup will be created. The next backups will be incremental. To set up the simple backup scheme, specify the appropriate settings as follows.
Backup Set up the backup schedule - when and how often to back up the data. To learn more about setting up the schedule, see the Scheduling (p. 168) section. Retention rule With the simple scheme, only one retention rule (p. 41) is available. Set the retention period for the backups.

Parameters
You can set up the following parameters of a Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) scheme. Start backup at: Back up on: Weekly/Monthly: Specifies when to start a backup. The default value is 12:00 PM. Specifies the days on which to perform a backup. The default value is Workdays. Specifies which of the days selected in the Back up on field you want to reserve for weekly and monthly backups. A monthly backup will be performed every fourth such day. The default value is Friday.

Specifies how long you want the backups to be stored in the archive. A term can be set in hours, days, weeks, months, or years. For monthly backups, you can also select Keep indefinitely if you want them to be saved forever. The default values for each backup type are as follows. Daily: 7 days (recommended minimum) Weekly: 4 weeks Monthly: indefinitely The retention period for weekly backups must exceed that for daily backups; the monthly backups' retention period must be greater than the weekly backups' retention period. We recommend setting a retention period of at least one week for daily backups.

At all times, a backup is not deleted until all backups that directly depend on it become subject to deletion as well. This is why you might see a weekly or a monthly backup remain in the archive for a few days past its expected expiration date. If the schedule starts with a daily or a weekly backup, a full backup is created instead.

Examples
Each day of the past week, each week of the past month
Let us consider a GFS backup scheme that many may find useful.

       

Back up files every day, including weekends Be able to recover files as of any date over the past seven days Have access to weekly backups of the past month Keep monthly backups indefinitely.

Backup scheme parameters can then be set up as follows. Start backup at: 11:00 PM Back up on: All days Weekly/monthly: Saturday (for example) Keep backups:

Limited storage
If you do not want to arrange a vast amount of space to store a huge archive, you may set up a GFS scheme so as to make your backups more short-lived, at the same time ensuring that your information can be recovered in case of an accidental data loss. Suppose that you need to:

       

Perform backups at the end of each working day Be able to recover an accidentally deleted or inadvertently modified file if this has been discovered relatively quickly Have access to a weekly backup for 10 days after it was created Keep monthly backups for half a year.

Backup scheme parameters can then be set up as follows. Start backup at: 6:00 PM Back up on: Workdays Weekly/monthly: Friday Keep backups:

  

Daily: 1 week Weekly: 10 days Monthly: 6 months

With this scheme, you will have a week to recover a previous version of a damaged file from a daily backup; as well as 10-day access to weekly backups. Each monthly full backup will be available for six months since the creation date.

Work schedule
Suppose you are a part-time financial consultant and work in a company on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On these days, you often make changes to your financial documents, statements, and update the spreadsheets etc. on your laptop. To back up this data, you may want to:

  

Track changes to the financial statements, spreadsheets, etc. performed on Tuesdays and Thursdays (daily incremental backup). Have a weekly summary of file changes since last month (Friday weekly differential backup). Have a monthly full backup of your files.

Moreover, assume that you want to retain access to all backups, including the daily ones, for at least six months. The following GFS scheme suits such purposes:

Here, daily incremental backups will be created on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with weekly and monthly backups performed on Fridays. Note that, in order to choose Friday in the Weekly/monthly field, you need to first select it in the Back up on field. Such an archive would allow you to compare your financial documents as of the first and the last day of work, and have a five-year history of all documents, etc.

Backup is thus performed only on Fridays. This makes Friday the only choice for weekly and monthly backups, leaving no other date for daily backups. The resulting “Grandfather-Father” archive will hence consist only of weekly differential and monthly full backups. Even though it is possible to use GFS to create such an archive, the Custom scheme is more flexible in this situation.

7.3.7.5
At a glance
   

Tower of Hanoi scheme

Up to 16 levels of full, differential, and incremental backups Next-level backups are twice as rare as previous-level backups One backup of each level is stored at a time Higher density of more recent backups

Parameters
You can set up the following parameters of a Tower of Hanoi scheme.
Schedule Set up a daily (p. 169), weekly (p. 171), or monthly (p. 173) schedule. Setting up schedule parameters allows creating simple schedules (example of a simple daily schedule: a backup task will be run every 1 day at 10 AM) as well as more complex schedules (example of a complex daily schedule: a task will be run every 3 days, starting from January 15. During the specified days the task will be repeated every 2 hours from 10 AM to 10 PM). Thus, complex schedules specify the sessions on which the scheme should run. In the discussion below, "days" can be replaced with "scheduled sessions". Select from 2 to 16 backup levels. See the example stated below for details. The guaranteed number of sessions that one can go back in the archive at any time. Calculated automatically, depending on the schedule parameters and the numbers of levels you select. See the example below for details.